From: "KH6HZ" on Mon, Jan 1 2007 8:40 am

Here's a direct, unedited, verbatim quote from
Michael P. Deignan made on Monday, January 1, 2006
showing a typical example of "courteous, logical
'debate'" from a code-tested amateur extra:

That's pretty much my mental image of Lennie. A senile old fart, rocking
in his corner rocking chair, who occasionally wipes the drool of his face,
plugs in his telephone to his 300 baud acoustic-coupler modem, and uses
his VT100 green-screen to spread hate and discontent.

Oh, my, Mikey forgot to include "wearing pampers" and
"dribbling pablum" as another morse maven from New
Jersey wrote... :-)

Tsk, "senility" hasn't yet set in, I have NO "rocking
chair" and only "drool" mentally seeing certain women
of great natural beauty. I can't remember ever using
a "VT100", only one of the early Tektronix smart
terminals and the last time I used an acoustic coupler
for a computer connection was in 1977 at Teledyne
Electronics in Newbury Park, CA. The first mainframe
CRT terminal I used was an RCA-manufactured model
(made in Van Nuys, CA) back in 1973. [the RCA
"Spectra 70" mainframe was made there although
I've never been a part of that work] I am rather
familiar with "green screens" since that CRT phosphor
has been common since I've been working in electronics
(since 1952). My wife has a rocking chair (antique)
but it is up at the northern house and was used by
our grandniece during nursing of her new baby boy.

My PC is a standard Hewlett-Packard box purchased almost
three years ago at Fry's Electronics in Burbank, CA, one
with modest clock rate (1.2 GHz) but with a 56K modem on
a plug-in. 40 GB HD, only 128 MB of RAM, with USB ports
as well as standard serial and parallel interface. The
monitor is a Samsung 712N LCD 17" flat screen that is
almost two years old (also purchased at Fry's). A recent
addition is an HP wireless keyboard and mouse (also from
Fry's, a giant supermarket of consumer electronics in
nearby Burbank). Note: The wireless mouse needs a new
set of batteries almost every month...supplied by a set
of NiMH batteries charged by an battery chargers
formerly used only for household tasks. :-(

The office in our dwelling (the southern house) has
"his and her" computer desks which I made in 1999 (six
foot long glued wooden countertops sold for kitchens,
with extra-wide keyboard shelves also made by me)
including AC power outlets and modular telephone jacks
at each "desk." Ample workspace. I've been a user of
WordPerfect since release 5.1 and now have release 8.
I have the full version of Adobe Acrobat and know how
to use all softwares in my computer. That includes
SPICE (a free download from Linear Technology) and my
own-written packages...and am beginning to write
programs directly for Windows using PowerBasic (MS
quit supporting FORTRAN years ago and their version 9
and up Windows don't support all DOS-level programs).
I've gotten a copy of (free) "JustBasic" and am trying
that out...looks easier to use.

While I don't have the stamina or agility of a twenty-
year-old now, my wife and I have not been pursuing (as
we once did) an active lifestyle. That is due to my
wife having undergone a successful hip joint
replacement procedure in August. While there were
(thankfully) no problems with that, the recovery
period is about a year according to her surgeon. The
scheduling of the surgery caused us to put off a trip
to the midwest for our 55th High School Class Reunion
(we went to the 50th in 2001, both of us being in
the same class). We did go to my wife's 50th Reunion
at Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin in 2005, driving
the whole way. Car is a modest 2005 Chevrolet Malibu
MAXX and I do most of the driving...still passing all
required written tests with no physical problems
preventing my holding a driving license.

MD

Tsk, you are neither licensed Medical Doctor nor live
in Maryland. :-)

So, as you see Alun, nothing has changed over the past 7 years, except the
email address he uses when he posts.

MUCH has changed! See FCC 06-178 announced on 15th
December! The USA has been attacked by kamikazi
muslim extremists (not just pro-coder olde fahrts),
Shrub sent the US off to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Amateur radio "restructuring" happened (R&O FCC
99-412 released 30 December 1999) and the amateur
radio licensee numbers have been slowly dropping.
Now, I admit to not taking advantage of the free
IEEE e-mail forwarding alias until a couple years
ago somewhat long after I became a Life Member.
My wife and I became "great grands" and joined
the HDTV generation, getting excellent digital TV
through Time-Warner cable service (subscriber box
has a Tivo-like recorder capable of recording two
programs at the same time for 20 hours maximum).
Two of the ardent morse mavens in this newsgroup
passed away and the ARRL staffers seem to avoid the
newsgroup now. You've missed a LOT!

Oh, and not to forget: Michael P. Deignan got his
MANY "club calls" taken away from him by the FCC!
Sunnuvagun! The "RF Commandos" were mustered out
of militant service? :-)

Mikey, I'll flip you something: The bird.

Byeeee...